Need Help immediantly ICH!

[fireykat04]

My fish have ich! I was just looking at the pics posted by Beth and it is definitely ICH. So here's my questions....I have a 10 gallon set up for QT. I'm not sure this is going to be big enough? I have a 3" hippo Tang, a 1" Domino, a 2" Manderin that are showing signs of ICH. I lost my Kole Tang to it this morning. I have a Yellow Tang who is showing no signs "yet" and my Tomato Clown or Bangii Carndinal aren't.
So do I put everyone in QT to be on the safe side? Or just the ones with ICH that I see.?
Also I read Beth's post on the QT tank and I set mine up BEFORE I read that and I have live sand in my QT tank. Is that going to be a problem? Should I take it out? It has cycled. I figured with that many fish in such a small space, should I change the water every other day?
I'm also afraid my Manderin will starve because it has no live rock, so he won't have access to the copepods. If I treat my main tank it will kill my coral and inverts right?
How long before the main tank is safe to put everyone back in? I read in here the fish should be QT for about 4 weeks?
HELP.. I'm not sure what to do and I need to do it NOW..

 

[fireykat04]

Okay I'm going crazy here trying to decide what to do. Would I be better off to go get a 30 gallon to set up as an emergency QT and do water changes every couple of days? I just read that ALL fish need to be out of the main tank in order kill off the ICH. There is no way they will all fit in my 10 QT. I had it mainly for QT of new fish, one at time seemed okay. BUT not all of them.. HELLLLLPPPPPPPPP

 

[beth]

Is your main tank a display tank? Do you have Live Rock? It may be possible to treat the fish in the display tank if all you have is LR.

 

[fireykat04]

No, my main tank has corals and inverts in it, anemone's, crabs, a serpent star, snails.

 

[fireykat04]

Plus it has about 160 pounds of live sand and about 70 lbs of live rock. It is a 65 gallon tank.

 

[carshark]

well one of your main problems here is that you have too many tangs and large fish together. a 65 especially with coral and inverts, and that massive sand bed you have, as well as 70lbs of LR, thats a lot going on in there. i wonder how your madarin is doing, IMO that tank isnt big enough to house the amount life that guy needs. there are a couple reasons why sand in a qt is not recommended. the sand is live and creates a reflection, instead id recommend a painted (on the outside) bottom, and back, some say sides also but its up to you. next as far as that many fish, a 10 gallon isnt going to be adequate room for them to relax, which is key when QTing a new fish or a sick one. the problem is also you see the ick is now in your main display, so even if you were to treat them one by one, it would take too long, and it still would remain in your display and eventually show its ugly face again.... the 30 gallon idea can work but thats a lot of bioload to monitor constantly, thats a whole lot of water changes for 6 weeks, because you are going to have to leave them out of your main display for that long anyway so the ick dies in there. is there anyone you know with an established tank you could use? or what if you could take back a couple of those guys to your LFS so there wont be a massive bioload in your QT? im just thinkin here with ya..

 

[jcrim]

I just finished treating a bout of ich with Chem-Marin Stop Parasite. This is a copper free product and is advertised as reef safe. This worked for me... I don't have a reef but there are some star polyps, aptasia, feather dusters and conch in my tank. None were harmed by this treatment.
IMO to put tangs in a 10 gallon would probably stress them out more and may do more harm than good. Some may disagree.
Good luck.

 

[fireykat04]

carshark, I decided to do the 30 gallon for a quarantine tank. You are right the 10 would not have worked. I will do the water changes, I have large tubs with ph to mix the saltwater on stand by. It's the only choice I have. I don't know the guys at the LFFS well enough to ask them help with my problem. I have two one is close by and the other is pretty far away. I'm using copper power, it's the only treatment my LFS had. Have any of you ever heard of this stuff?
Also, the only fish I didn't take out was my clown. Which poses a question? Will the anemone sting keep the parasites off him? He loves the anemone so much I didn't want to stress him.
jcrim, I was afraid to treat my main tank. I only have a couple of corals and a couple anemones but, I didn't want to lose them too.
I guess I will be doing a whole lot of water changes in the next 6 weeks. If anyone has any other ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

 

[carshark]

well now that you are going to be doing this QT, you will have to make sure to remove any uneaten food immediately, and watch your levels, daily almost bi-hourly, especially after feeding, i also recommend if you are going to copper the QT to spread out the treatments, im not sure what the brand will say in their directions, but typically you have to wait three days between treatments as well as a 1/3 water change before each one. do not run any carbon, or skimmer if you planned on one for your QT, which isnt neccessary anyway. yes you need to remove the other clown, im sorry to say but the ick will remain in your display regardless. your display needs to be fishless for 6 weeks. so you also see now that you are going to have to babysit your QT, especially with that many fish in there, thats an extreme bioload for one 30 gal. tank. really try to reduce feeding a lot, try to give the healthiest food and vitamin supplements you can, it is going to be stressful in there......

 

[fireykat04]

Have you ever heard of Kick ICH? At the local fish store today they said it was totally reef safe. They swear by it? I am thinking of putting everyone back and trying it? Says it kills the free floating ich too?
Reef Safe Kick-Ich is a water treatment for the control of ich (a.k.a. "whitespot disease") in marine and freshwater aquaria. It has been scientifically formulated to eliminate the free swimming, infectious stage of the ich life cycle while being safe for all freshwater and marine aquaria. Kick-Ich has a long shelf life at room temperature and is supplied in easy to use, self-dosing bottles. Safe for all fish, corals, invertebrates and macro algae, as well as the facultative anaerobes and nitrifying bacteria essential to biologic filtration.
What do you guys think?

 

[carshark]

Originally Posted by Fireykat04
Have you ever heard of Kick ICH? At the local fish store today they said it was totally reef safe. They swear by it? I am thinking of putting everyone back and trying it? Says it kills the free floating ich too?
Reef Safe Kick-Ich is a water treatment for the control of ich (a.k.a. "whitespot disease") in marine and freshwater aquaria. It has been scientifically formulated to eliminate the free swimming, infectious stage of the ich life cycle while being safe for all freshwater and marine aquaria. Kick-Ich has a long shelf life at room temperature and is supplied in easy to use, self-dosing bottles. Safe for all fish, corals, invertebrates and macro algae, as well as the facultative anaerobes and nitrifying bacteria essential to biologic filtration.
What do you guys think?

well what it says about the beneficial bacteria, and macroalgae, about not killing it, thats a good thing, thats one of the worst side effects of using chemicals...but think of it this way, ick is an invertebrate, so Im not totally convinced that a.) it wouldnt hurt inverts or b.) that it will kill only ick. or c.) that if it is reef safe that it would work period, or that it would kill all of the ick that is in your filter, sand bed, water, powerheads, etc etc..so its chances of showing up is pretty good.you know what I mean? I have never used that brand, but i would imagine that it is toxic to an extent, and that if its not it wouldnt work at all....its late i hope i am not rambling and making sense...not to mention that you will have to do a 1/3 water change between treatments, and you will have to remove any carbon and stop skimming, so that tells me your water quality dives and your reef organisms run a great risk of being severly affected or worse death...

 

[fireykat04]

That makes sense. I'm going to the fish today that sells it. It is a Saltwater only store so I will pick their brains and see what they say. See if they have ever used and ask them the questions that formulated from you said about it. I'll let you know what they say.

 

[flamehawk]

I'm not aware of any reef safe medication that works in combating ich.
jcrim-Chem marine---How long did you use it? when you state it worked, what type of fish had ich and how long have you been w/o ich? intrigued but not convinced.....thx.

 

[carshark]

well it looks like i gave you my 2 cents, and you seem to agree, if they swear by it, and they will replace what dies, if it dies, id do it, otherwise id get rid of the fish and leave your tank fishless for 6 weeks, or see if they will hold it for you etc etc....
good luck..

 

[fireykat04]

When I got up yesterday morning, my hippo tang was really stressing, and so was my manderin, I put them back in the big tank. I was afraid they were going to die from stress and starvation, they quit eating. I got the kick ich last night and put everyone back in the tank. Seems this stuff gets it off the fish but, as you said doesn't really kill the ich. The LFS is of the opinion that no matter what you are going to have ich in your tank at some point and as long as your fish are healthy and stress free they will not get it. They advise the use of garlic soaked food as Beth's thread suggested. Everyone seems much happier this a.m and I am feeding them pellets with an immune boaster in it and mysis soaked in garlic. I'll let you know how that goes. :happyfish

 

[carshark]

Originally Posted by Fireykat04
When I got up yesterday morning, my hippo tang was really stressing, and so was my manderin, I put them back in the big tank. I was afraid they were going to die from stress and starvation, they quit eating. I got the kick ich last night and put everyone back in the tank. Seems this stuff gets it off the fish but, as you said doesn't really kill the ich. The LFS is of the opinion that no matter what you are going to have ich in your tank at some point and as long as your fish are healthy and stress free they will not get it. They advise the use of garlic soaked food as Beth's thread suggested. Everyone seems much happier this a.m and I am feeding them pellets with an immune boaster in it and mysis soaked in garlic. I'll let you know how that goes. :happyfish

K good luck....but again think of it this way....they said no matter what you will have ick in your tank just keep them healthy blah blah.. right? well if ick cannot survive in OST how could there be any ick remaining in the tank? and if you QT any new fish for 4 weeks, and you can use all methods of removing ick in a QT, wouldnt that then eliminate it from your systems??